seems like E3 hasn't had the effect, also Japan has always had a cheaper PS3 so nothing is really new for them over there besides E3, that might reinstall some consumer confidence on all 3 platforms, well don't know about the 360 but yeah.

Well these numbers are from last week, so if E3 had any effect it wont be noticed till next time the numbers are released. Also you cannot say only Japan considering half or more of our games from there. If a system is successful there its going to get their support through development.

but Haven't you heard? Japan does not make or break a console anymore. To me they are becoming less important. Their games and hardware sell well over there. Some software, I think me and you would not play does very well over there. Japan will alway shave it's people behind it's products when it comes to the Console business.

Europe/western world will eventually be fine.

I just hope japan developers start looking at the CAPCOM trend, an d take a look at themselves and where their industry is going. At least that's what I think. Bu yeah, only till next-week, we will see, if any big splash.

Dude, who are you trying to fool? Ps3 fans? Nintendo Fans? I don't think so. The only reason you say "To me they are becoming less important," is because your precious 360 is not do much in terms of sales over there. Let me tell you something, Japan is indeed important to the gaming industry. Period. Out of Japan, many gaming trends are started and if you're not selling in the Japan, then maybe there is something wrong with your product. Why do you think 360 has hit a wall in sales? Because every week it is underselling at 2000-3000 units in Japan. Microsoft had a extra year to get things right but what happened, they did not get things right.

You can't even say the Japanese market is not important because apparently, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all know it is indeed important. But your 360 fanboyism won't let you see that. So since you hate Sony and Nintendo and only want the 360 to succeed, you will try by all means necessary to convince others that Japan is such a bad market. Being one of the most biased 360 fanboys trying to play like your neutral while downplaying every good news for Sony and Nintendo, I don't even know why you have so many bubbles.

Rather than say Japan has a bad market, or that Japan doesn't matter, you need to ask Microsoft to fix whatever is broken about the 360 so that it may some day sell over 4000 units in Japan.

Other than that, Let's Game On. Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 For the Win!!!

What are you talking about, I only say that because of what I have been reading. Do you even know what has been happening to the Japanese Market? as far as developers and what they are saying? Plus, where did I state they are not important at all?

"To me they are becoming less important." Is what I wrote, it's there.

Why your making this to be about the 360. The 360 hasn't fared well at all in Japan. It is doing better than the Xbox for sure but nothing great. every Console that never had very strong backing from Japan has died. Well the 360 is in it for the long haul, as if you didn't notice. I understand how the japanese culture is when it comes to Video games. You have never had a western made console as popular there, well there have never been until the Xbox.

As far as Japans decline with their games, and how closed they are or have been the past 10 years or so, this is all true, do your homework. It has been on the DECLINE, even though I thin Nintendo is one of the biggest sellers over there with their products and has kept them afloat. Everyone has something made by Nintendo over there.

You think I'm just making this up. There have been a lot of this. I read lot so articles. Come correct bro, before you start attacking. Personally, I just think Japan is not as important as they used to be, and they are being left behind in game development. Look at how far Western and Europe developers have come?

Anyhow you have no substance,(everything is about MS to you, and just stupid PS3 FTW comments. Wasting my time.) Yes I have a 360 and Wii, I'm not playing no Neutral sh!t, just read my post, I will gladly tell you why I don't own a PS3, like I have gazillion times over and over. Anyhow, I won't sink down to your level Mr General....ha that's right.

you don't know sh!t about the industry because if you did you would know japan loves their homegrown stuff and they don't like western games, never have never will but kewlkat is right they are not important, whoever wins the us and european market will own this gen, so don't kid yourself. actually sony is the one losing, xbox is the foreigner on enemy ground, sony is on home turf where they were king last gen, yet their sales are miserable. if you look at the games that are big hits over there with the exception of a few well known titles, the rest are complete garbage either ninty kiddie crap spinoffs or a pedophiles wet dream. Japan is going down hill and their only hangin on, hating western games because they think they have some place in history to protect, its over they time have come, 95% of the best games are no longer made by japanese devs. by next gen either they will move along like Capcom or become a niche market.=

believe it or not for a console to be a success it has to enjoy success in ALL markets. Japan might not hold the same power in gaming as it did back in the day but great games still come out of there and without microsoft being able to establish at least a reasonable presence there then these japanese devs might decide not to even look at the 360. Lots of great games created for the japanese market have seen a lot of success in the US. Mario, final fantasy, metal gear solid, resident evil. All of these are powerful franchises made from japan and coincidentally their sequels are still among the most anticipated games to date. Msoft needs to put in extra effort to break that japanese market if they plan to win this console war. I don't see how they can win consistently sellin 2000+ in Japan. Am not saying they won't win but they need the japanese market to do so.

not true. Success is not determined by region. Its determined as a whole. IF i created an item lets call it Jigjag and you created an item to compete with mine lets call yours Jogjeg. If you sold well in japan and took over 80% of the market there. For the rest of the world lets say I took over in america and Europe with a 90% market share Australia and all other markets are dead even.

Buy sales alone would dictate that I am dominating. Sure you have japan but since that market counts for about 15% of the global scale. It becames a "ok good for you" deal. Where my 90% control in the rest of the world out weighs yours. Hence when it comes down to it I won.

Frankly with the way Japan is such a closed society that really does not adapt to outside tech it really doesnt matter to me. They only account for 15% of the market in video games.

Plus saying that ps3 is out selling 360 is all well in good cause it is numbers do not lie. But your victory is just overshadowed by the WII kicking ass.

*edit* there was something else i wanted to say. Even today look at E3. The top games that everyone is talking about. How many are Japanese? is

Ps3 big name the only one that is Japanese is Metal Gear Solid 4

Microsoft has 2 that are japanese Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey

Nintendo is the only exception

*edit 2* if your going to disagree atleast join in the conversation. Lets keep it clean

last i checked, every system that ended up not selling atleast decent in japan...died out. So success in Japan is "make or break". If japan were not important, then ms would have already quit and focused 100% on the US market...but instead they continue to try to salvage some success in Japan, which is the correct decision for Microsoft. Abandoning or neglecting the japanese market is pure suicide, and that's not what MS is doing this time around.

because the 360 doesn't sell well there the fact is the 360 doesn't really sell well anywhere besides the US as a percentage of total sales. The original xbox sold 24 million total units with 14 million units in the US. The 360 has sold 10 million units with 6.5 million units sold in the US. Do the math and the percentage of xbox US owners have jumped from 59% on the original xbox to 65% on the 360. This is the complete opposite of what MS wanted to do with the 360.

however, sold consoles still means more sales for games. that`s why such japanese companies like capcom starting care more about usa market, though due to that, they starting to creat some "fast food" games. also namco and konami will support x360 with games. :) that means they will make more west oriented games for x360, and probably more japaneese styled games for ps3.

no use talking to kewlkat.he's a 360 fanboy hiding behind the mask of neutrality.i've been saying that for a long time.HE'S JUST NOT AS OBVIOUS LIKE JASON,BLOODMASK,BLADESTAR,FIRS T KNIGHT, AND THE REST.

if you look at his comments in the 360 section,it will be fine.but when it's a thread about ps3 that is good news,he pulls it back down.he never comes in and says "good job sony."it's always "negative" spin to try to sway you that sony is not doing well.

you'll never see him say"microsoft is doing terrible over in japan."and you'll never see him compare sales of 360 to the wii.NEVER.but he'll compare ps3 to wii or 360 when the need arises.

it's the same with feral phoenix.another 360 fanboy.he tries to hide behind the bubbles claiming he's a multisystem gamer.but never comes in and says "good job sony" either.and BOTH probally never hit the nintendo section to see what is going on.but they will hit the ps3 section to provide that devil's advocate nonsense.

my advice would be to ignore the f*ckers.after playing ps3,after seeing what sony has and will bring,and i know you see it too,f*ck those two faced b!tches.these are the types of gamers that have hidden agendas.but CLAIM TO BE NEUTRAL.

these fan b!tches are not neutral,feral and kewlkat are not in the same league.actually,you know what? i have to separate these fools away from the better gamers by spacing my typing.SEE HOW FAR THEY ARE?

and thammer,i don't hide behind anything.i've played EVERY system under the sun.and i have an xbox.but i don't hide the fact that i like what sony has done for the game industry.which is expanding it beyond the idea of videogames being for kids.i like action,japanese rpgs,adventure,quirky,you name it,i like it.but sony gives you more of it.and more games for the adult gamer.but i don't hide.IT'S PLAIN AS DAY.

Dude I applaud you for being one of the few people alongside The General to have the BALLS of finally pointing out the fanboys that hide behind "I am neutral","I am a real gamer" and their "popularity" crap and them come and shows us how REALLY biased they really are.

I have to admit, kewlkat007 and other very biased 360fanboys with over 5 bubbles, are more biased than PS3 or Nintendo Fans with 2 or less bubbles. I just have to wonder how the likes of kewlkat007, The Mart, Thammer1, Bladestar, *EliteGamer, and other 360 fanboys got so many bubbles. I mean, who is voting for them? Are there really that many 360 fanboys on this site that secretly add bubbles to every single comment that they make? I mean it's crazy.

I mean it's not even like Ps3/ Nintendo fanboys. They just like to make positive comments about their consoles of choice and most of the time, they have to compare the article to the 360's because those same fanboys are always bashing other consoles. And they don't lose bubbles for it. But when a PS3/Nintendo fanboy does the same, you see there bubbles take a nose dive in just one article. I mean, come on... that's crazy.

That's why when Killzone 2 proved itself, I said all Sony fans deserved a bubble. And when Smash Bros. Comes out, all Nintendo fans will deserve bubbles. When Gears of war 2 comes out, PS3 fans and Xbox fans will get bubbles.

kewlkat is sooooo 360 and thats kool. I prefer the extreme fanboys more because they wear their colours not hide behind them. I use to think that of bstar but he just really needed a reason to get a ps3 and has lightened up since considering it as to feral, hmm i always thought he was 360 fanboy with the money to own all 3 systems BUT he 'speaks so well' just kiddin I think he is not so much anti sony just anti sony fanboy which is understandable. I likened him to the older brother keeping the ecstatic ps3 kids in check (because of the influx of positive ps3 news). Peeps like firstknight jason bloodmask im kool with because they just try and annoy you with bs where the sneaky fu(ks try and head fu(k you because they SAY they have both/all systems.

kewlkat is 0 % neutral and neither am i but you wont hear me pull the neutral card neither. I have my ps brand preference and give credit where its due to the 360 cause it deserves it sometimes. kelwkat is the opposite

Well the PS3 is back above 10,000 sitting in at 12,600. The 360 keeps falling 2,300! The 360 is truly hated by the Japanese, and the PS3 won't sell there without any good jrpg's. As long as it stays like this the wii will kill. Either Sony or MS have to start delivering, if anything just to eat into the wii's market share! Why do all the Japanese want to play stupid 5 second mini games?

Glad to see PS3 sales are picking up again. I need to trade in my Japanese Wii for an American Wii. But that is quite a phenomenon. How long is it going to be a fad? LOL I just downloaded the MGS 4 trailer from PSN. That was amazing. Can't wait to see them play a demo next week. I can actually make it to Japan for that, well, hopefully. That should give a boost in sales, too.

PSP sales are only going to get better. GT:mobile and FF7;CC is going to be the main system drivers for japan... they might just get close to the 100k per week mark for awhile, but they'll never catch the DS.

BTW: i forgot about FF:tatics for the PSP will also be a japanese system seller (is that out in japan yet?)

How come they don't show just US, or just Europe numbers. Why is that? I think if people look beyond the japanese numbers, the wii is only selling like 2-1 and it's cheaper and being outsold by the PS2 any where else but Japan. I think nintendo is trying to force demand in the US and Europe by causing shortages and always showing Japan numbers. How come they always show numbers where PS3/360 are doing the worst but never show US numbers. The wii has sold 8 million units and yet it's sold out, remember they only sold 8 million units and while are they in short supply when 8 million should of been easy to produce. It's not like they made 15 million units and couldn't keep up, Why the shortages, when the wii is only selling like 2-1 in the us and europe. Things that make you go hummmm

I feel the force is weak with this website, so much anger and pain.I am assuming that once halo3 is released that all hell will break loose and MS can claim total dominance?Let's face it Japan will not kneel to Microsoft.

For all the Sony fanboys out there, at the peak of the ps2 weekly sales in Japan way back it use to be in the 30k per week.Just as the PSP is doing that is with the obvious killer app it would jump temp, but that's it don't expect wii and ds like sales on a non-casual gaming system.Maybe it's not obvious to many blind fans out there but the sales of the wii alone( we have to exclude the DSL)aren't those ex-gamecube owners but new gamers that Nintendo has been fishing for so long.The Wii will get great AAA titles like any system and a lot of casual stuff maybe to many, everyone keeps saying how it has a lot of mini game stuff but if a lot of dev's had knew this sorta sale figures, they would of been better prep. So we get a lot of rushed jobs,ports and mini games to make a fast buck. Even Capcom did good with RE4, the RE:UBC looks good, but what really looks promising is the fact that the wii might get the old RE series ala RE4 style, I know a lot of guys out there would say HELL NO, but any RE fan would jump at that. Let's face it Nintendo makes profit on the wii and the DS and can very well be planning more Virtual reality type applications. Just need to look further than your thumb on that 3rd gen ps3 controller. I will own a ps3 for all the great games that will be on it, and hopefully the x360 too but right now the Wii and Sword of the New world (PC) will keep my attention.